Somehow Winning

I have this little google docs (I guess google drive now) sheet where I periodically do an inventory of my net worth.  I'm not really sure why I started doing it other than I wanted to get some satisfaction out of watching it go up.  I fired it up today and did some rudimentary math and lo and behold it's actually higher than it's ever been, despite my not making any money for several months straight now.  So right there it bang it was worth it to keep the sheet, because now I feel good about myself, even though all the gains were derived from passive investments (the market has gone nowhere but up since like July) and a horse running like the very wind itself once more.  I'm really glad I held onto that guy....I've gotten a fair bit of advice along the way from a wide array of people (some I respect...some I don't really...some who know what they're talking about...some who don't) saying that I should have cut the whole thing off.  The advice got loudest during a particularly rough patch, but heeding it would have just been plain silly.  There were growing pains, which were completely foreseeable, and now that we're on the other side of them I've earned the right to keep making money.  So that's just what I'm going to do :)

Today's session at the bike got cut short because, as is the local custom, the game basically broke at 2:30pm.  When I walked in 2 pros and the host were playing 3 handed...I joined them, and we eventually added a regular and another host to bring the game up to 6 max.  We eventually filled to 9 handed, but only briefly, and spent most of the day playing 7 way or so.  The whale came in, dropped his 2 racks, and quit all within what felt like about 15 minutes.  Some other people got buried, I managed to win, blah blah blah.  Here are some fun hands, pretty much all vs the same player....this guy is an old school pro who used to win a bunch but I think has adjusted...poorly...to the new state of limit hold 'em.

Hand 1

I open the button and he 3-bets his own big blind.  Right off the bat this is pretty much bad news vs me.  I mean, I have a super wide range (obviously) so three betting a balanced and superior one is probably fine, but he almost certainly doesn't do that.  And there really is no need whatsoever, since HUHU vs him I'm still betting every single flop (since he has that 3 betting range, his calling range is just retardedly weak and even my piece of shit range almost always is ahead on most boards).  He does 3 bet a lot of hands here, though, as you'll see.  The board comes down something like:

K73r-3-5

And he just barrels off.  Fires every street, then declares dejectedly "ace high" on the river.  As I turn over the mighty 97o and he makes some comment about how lucky I am and I just smile and drag the chips.  If you saw this hand played out online you'd probably think "oh yeah jesse missed some value there" but that's not really the case here.  He doesn't know what he's doing...he's not value betting and trying to get called down by queen high.  He's just...betting.  And so I'm just going to go ahead and let him do that, hopefully for many weeks to come.

Hand 2

The exact same thing happens, except he has KJ and I start with a pair of 4s and the board runs out QT3-7-8.  He bets every street after 3 betting his big blind, I call every street and produce the winner.  He again is frustrated...this one makes a little more sense, as he probably has the nut low of his range by the river and therefore should just be barreling off relentlessly, but still...you see the pattern.

Hand 3

Here's the magnum opus for the day.  I raise some limpers with queens and we see a flop 5 ways.  He's in the blinds somewhere, I'm not sure which one, doesn't matter really except if he's the small well that's even worse.  The flop comes

Q94sss

And only he calls my bet.  I'm loving life, right up until the turn comes:

Q94sss-8r

And he check/raises me.  Obviously I'm never folding top set, but he's pretty much supposed to have exactly jack ten here and me boned right smartly.  I call down on the river 7 and he shows me...K4 of diamonds.  King.  Four.  Diamonds.  The table just erupts in laughter as I let his hand fester in the middle of the table for a minute, trying to see if I somehow grossly misread the board and his hand is more than the bottom pair (nice kicker though) it appears to be before I table my rock (nothing beats rock).

So yeah, things went pretty much OK except for the whole only playing for four hours...the word on the street is that a big game is going to break out at commerce tomorrow, and it's going to take everything in me not to show up at 9am with bells on trying to take the beating of a life time.....but maybe just maybe I can do it.